ORANGE COUNTY
“Gardens of the Piedmont
and Whispers of History”
Sponsored by the Dolley Madison Garden Club
Saturday April 17, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Co-Chairmen:
DeLane Porter (Mrs. J. Ridgely III)
PO Box 482
Montpelier Station, VA 22957
Telephone: (540) 661-0361
E-mail: dwpy@aol.com
Cynthia Whitman (Mrs. R.T.)
PO Box 814
Orange, VA 22960
Telephone: (540) 661-0474
E-mail: cynwhit@gmail.com
ADVANCE TICKET SALES: $25, may be purchased at the following locations until 3 p.m. Friday, April 16: Elmwood at Sparks, 124 W. Main St., Orange (540) 627-0600; The Arts Center of Orange, 1293 E. Main St., Orange (540) 672-7311; Museum of Culpeper History, 803 S. Main St., Culpeper (540) 829-1749; Pepperberries, 102 N. Main St., Culpeper (540) 829-2290; Laurie Holladay Interiors, 123 S. Main St., Gordonsville (540) 832-0052. For internet tickets, please visit www.VAGardenweek.org
DAY OF TOUR TICKET SALES: $30; no single-site admissions. Children 6-12 half price; children 5 and under, free of charge. Tickets are available at each location on the tour.
LUNCH: Pre-ordered box lunches will be available at the Orange Visitors Center, Orange, from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. for $12. A choice of (1) shaved turkey and Swiss on croissant with mustard and mayonnaise or (2) grilled vegetable wrap with feta cheese. Both are served with fruit, harvest sun chips, a locally baked chocolate chip cookie, and a bottle of water. Elmwood at Sparks will accept lunch orders by telephone (540) 672-0600, E-mail or personal visitors to Elmwood at Sparks: 124 W. Main St., Orange, VA 22960. Orders should be placed by Monday, April 12, 2010. info@elmwoodcatering.com and www.elmwoodcatering.com
GENERAL INFORMATION: Due to uneven surfaces at the rural properties, locations are not handicapped-accessible. Only 24-28 seat buses can be allowed on the narrow roads. Cars and vans are welcome. Flat-soled shoes are recommended for walking. Washroom facilities are available at the Visitors Center (112 E. Main St.), the Arts Center of Orange (1293 E. Main St.) and Mount Sharon.
REFRESHMENTS will be served at the Visitors Center all day and also at the James Madison Museum, 129 Caroline St., Orange.
DIRECTIONS: Tour properties are located in Orange County within 5 miles of the town limits. All locations are in zip code 22960. Tickets are available at all properties.
YOU MAY START YOUR TOUR FROM ANY LOCATION ALONG THE ROUTE. Some locations may be less crowded after lunch.
From Main St., Orange, turn onto Caroline St. and travel 0.3 mi. and turn left onto Rte 20 North at the second stop light. Proceed 3.3 mi. and turn left onto Bloomsbury Rd., Rte 778. Proceed 0.6 mi. to farm gate entrance to Bloomsbury.
Leaving Bloomsbury, turn left onto Rte 20 North and travel 1.6 mi. and go left onto to Rte 600, Mount Sharon Rd. Proceed 1.5 mi. to top of the hill and turn right into Mount Sharon.
Leaving Mount Sharon, go right onto Rte 600 north, proceed 1.5 mi. to Rapidan Rd., Rte 615, and turn left. Proceed 0.6 mi. and turn right onto Trimmers Rd., proceed 1.2 mi. to Hare Forest on the left.
Leaving Hare Forest, turn right onto Trimmers Rd., proceed to end, go right onto Rte 615, Rapidan Rd. Proceed 2 mi. to Little Yatton on the left.
Leaving Little Yatton, turn left onto Rapidan Rd., Rte 615, and proceed 2 mi. to the town of Orange.
The Dolley Madison Garden Club gratefully acknowledges that certain historical facts are courtesy of Ann L. Miller’s Antebellum Orange, Ó 1988 Orange Historical Society.
Orange County—Bloomsbury
BLOOMSBURY was erected by Col. James Taylor II, Surveyor General of the Royal Colony, in 1722 on a 15,000-acre grant from King George I and is recognized as the oldest existing dwelling in Orange County. Bloomsbury, a small wooden manor house, has had a charmed existence, surviving 287 years of random events without destruction or debilitating modernization. The house is truly unique: its proportions are nearly perfect, its interior details are unusually sophisticated, and it has architectural features that are thought to be first of their kind in Colonial America. Unfortunately, two ponds, a schoolhouse, a free-standing kitchen and other dependencies have not survived the passage of time.
Following the Battle of Gettysburg, Gen. Robert E. Lee and 64,000 troops encamped on the grounds during the winter of 1863. Here, they were paid a surprise visit by Confederate President Jefferson Davis who roomed at Bloomsbury during his review. The current owner, devoted to historic preservation, has filled the building with artifacts original to the period. This is a special opportunity to share a personal and intimate view of Virginia’s Colonial history with a descendent of an early Virginia family, The Honorable Helen Marie Taylor.
MOUNT SHARON GARDENS (cover photo) are widely admired as one of the most beautiful private landscapes on the East Coast. A visit here offers a rare opportunity to experience a private work of art of national significance.
If gardens are outdoor rooms, then Mount Sharon’s are a palace. The current owners collaborated with Virginia landscape architect Charles J. Stick in a five-year project to produce ten unique but integrated gardens, occupying ten acres on a hilltop with wonderful views of mountains and valleys on all sides. Individual spaces materialize magically through openings in a 450-foot tunnel of 100-year-old American boxwood. Some of these spaces take inspiration from signature gardens in the United States and Europe. The overall effect is a sophisticated blend of historic Virginia with European overtones. Pavilions, fountains, pergolas and statuary, like fine furniture, tastefully punctuate the “rooms.” The gardens periodically reveal 60-mile vistas of the surrounding Piedmont countryside from the second highest elevation in Orange County.
The current Georgian Revival residence, designed by Louis Bancel La Farge in the late-1930s, is often described as the finest example of its genre and is the third structure on property that derived from a 771-acre patent to John Taliaferro in 1726. Gardens only are open courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Seilheimer, Jr.
HARE FOREST suggests antiquity, prominence and mystery, and this location offers all three. Rescued on the courthouse steps in a deteriorated condition by the current owners in 1982, Hare Forest had a more exalted origin. The farm began as 468 acres purchased in 1778 by William Strother and occupied by his daughter and her husband, Richard Taylor. Their residence, long gone, is claimed to be the birthplace of Zachary Taylor, twelfth President of the United States—one of two such unresolved claims.
Now, Hare Forest includes 173 estate-like acres anchored by an eclectic two-story, Federal-style building constructed in the late-1700s of brick harvested from the property. Interestingly, the building’s front (there is some mystery as to which that is) is laid in Flemish bond while the remainder of the house is American bond. Molding and details throughout the interior are largely original. A number of 19th century outbuildings supplement the residence, most notably a round stone cistern. Today, the farm is a prominent Thoroughbred racing and breeding operation where GO FOR GIN, the 1994 Kentucky Derby winner, was raised. The property is under conservation easement which ensures that its current special character will be preserved, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Richard J.M. Poulson, owners.
LITTLE YATTON is sacred soil to Virginia gardeners. It is the last residence of Dorothy Hunt Williams, president of the Garden Club of Virginia and chairman of its Restoration Committee during the mid-1960s. The house at Little Yatton, nestled into a 42-acre hillside among 200-year-old Tulip Poplars, is offspring to adjacent Midland (“Middle Land,” 1722), owned by the Williams family in 1882 and later reacquired in 1935. The residence at Little Yatton has an understated elegance that reflects its beginning as a dependency.
Since 2004, the current owner has been patiently and carefully restoring the house room by room. A new perfectly proportioned, vaulted atrium with walled gardens to the east was built so as to be indistinguishable from the original footprint. Similarly, a sunroom expansion opens the house to pastoral views to the northeast. Beyond the house, and on the to-do list, lie the bones of gardens and ponds designed by Charles F. Gillette, nationally renowned Richmond landscape architect. Today, Little Yatton is an earnest continuation of an important Virginia legacy by its proprietor, Mr. Eben Richards.
OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST:
The town of Orange has made special arrangements for its Historic Garden Week guests. The locations below will offer services throughout tour day, and you are encouraged to enjoy their hospitality:
THE ORANGE COUNTY VISITORS CENTER, 112 East Main St. (9 a.m.- 5 p.m.). The Visitors Center is the original train station built in 1909 and restored in 1997. Restroom facilities available. Pick up your pre-ordered box lunches here.
THE ORANGE FARMERS’ MARKET, atthe Orange County VisitorsCenter, 112 E. Main St.(9 a.m. - 1 p.m.). The Farmers’ Market offers a range of interesting local items such as plants, baked goods and crafts.
JAMES MADISON MUSEUM, 129 Caroline St. (10 a.m. - 5 p.m.). The first museum to fully commemorate the “Father of the Constitution” provides insight into the life and legacy of President James Madison. Significant documents, family portraits, furnishings and Dolley Madison’s lace, lockets and letters are all on display along with an original 1733 patent house and rural Virginia farming artifacts. An admission fee is charged, and complimentary refreshments are served.
ST. THOMAS CHURCH, 119 Caroline St. (10 a.m.- 5 p.m.). Built in 1834 at a cost of $3,500, this has been the house of worship for members of the Madison family and was attended by Gen. Robert E. Lee during the winter of 1863. The tree to which Traveller was hitched remains on the property. Free admission.
ARTS CENTER OF ORANGE, 129 E. Main St. (10 a.m. - 5 p.m.). The Center owns a 1911 brick building in the town’s historic district. The Arts Center will be observing Virginia Minds Wide Open: Women in the Arts, a statewide event displaying quilts, fiber and mixed-media art. Tables for lunch and restroom facilities are available to guests, and local paintings, sculpture and pottery are offered for sale. Free admission.
VIRGINIA NATIONAL BANK, 102 E. Main St. (9 a.m.- 5 p.m.). The bank generously lends its lobby as a satellite gallery for the Arts Center of Orange. Works with a floral focus will be on display in this Classical Revival syle building first erected in 1892. Free admission.
ELMWOOD AT SPARKS, 124 W. Main St. (540) 672-0060. A local favorite, this restaurant offers contemporary American cuisine including a special prix-fixe lunch for Historic Garden Week guests from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you are making a day of it, consider a memorable dinner in its bistro setting from 6 to 9 p.m.
JAMES MADISON’S MONTPELIER. 4 mi. south of Orange on Rte 20 (9 a.m. - 5 p.m.). Montpelier is the home of the fourth President of the United States, James Madison, and his wife, Dolley. The main house has undergone a nationally acclaimed restoration to its original 1820 design. Past Historic Garden Week proceeds have enabled the Garden Club of Virginia to restore Montpelier’s two-acre formal terraced garden. A state-of-the-art visitor center provides information, entertainment, gifts and services. An admission fee is charged.